Growth Curve & Brain Development Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering topics on physical and brain development in childhood and adolescence from Chapters 5, 8, 11, and 14.

Neurons

Brain nerve cells that communicate through electrical and chemical signals.

Axons

Nerve fibers extending from neurons that send impulses.

Dendrites

Nerve fibers extending from neurons that receive impulses, experiencing a fivefold increase in the first 2 years.

Myelin sheath

A layer of fat cells that encases axons and speeds up the communication process.

Myelination

The process where nerve fibers get coated with a myelin sheath that improves the efficiency of communication.

Brain Plasticity

The brain's ability to change, adapt, and reorganize itself based on experiences, learning, or injury.

Lateralization

Specialization of functions in the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.

Left Hemisphere (Lateralization)

Processes information in a sequential, analytic way.

Right Hemisphere (Lateralization)

Processes information in a holistic, integrative way.

Frontal cortex

Area of the cerebral cortex that controls thinking, planning, decision-making, and voluntary movement.

Auditory cortex

Area of the cerebral cortex located in the temporal lobe that processes sound and hearing.

Visual cortex

Area of the cerebral cortex located in the occipital lobe that processes vision.

Pruning

The brain's process of getting rid of unused or unnecessary neural connections.

Experience-expectant growth

Growth resulting from ordinary experiences expected by the brain to grow normally.

Experience-dependent growth

Additional growth and refinement of established brain structures as a result of specific learning experiences.

REM sleep (Newborns)

A form of self-stimulation vital for growth of the central nervous system that accounts for 50% of newborns' sleep and helps deliver oxygen to parts of the eye lacking a blood supply.

SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

The leading cause of infant mortality between 1 week and 12 months in industrialized nations, peaking between 2 and 4 months.

Binocular vision

The ability to focus two eyes in a coordinated manner to see a single image, appearing at about 14 weeks.

Visual cliff

An experiment that tests whether babies can perceive depth by observing if they can tell that one surface looks higher or deeper than another.

Depth perception

The ability to see the world in 3D and judge how far away or deep something is.

Intermodal perception

Processing simultaneous input from more than one modality or sensory system, making sense of multisensory input as integrated wholes.

Dynamic perception

Perception primed from birth to focus on movement and change (novelty).

Classical conditioning

A learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus through association.

Operant conditioning

A learning process that increases or decreases responding through rewards or punishment.

Habituation

The process in infant cognition research where babies pay less attention to something after seeing it repeatedly because it becomes familiar.

Violation-of-expectation

A research method where researchers show a baby something unexpected to see if the baby notices the difference.

Recovery

The phenomenon where a baby resumes paying attention when something new or different is shown after habituation.

Cohort effect

Variations in patterns across different generations due to growing up during different cultural, social, and medical trends.

Gross Motor Skills

Motor skills involving large muscles and body movements, such as crawling, walking, running, and jumping.

Fine Motor Skills

Small, finely tuned movements, especially of hands and fingers, including grabbing, pointing, holding, and transferring objects from hand to hand.

Puberty

The period during which young people attain an adult-sized body and become capable of reproduction.

Primary sexual characteristics

Physical traits that involve the reproductive organs directly.

Secondary sexual characteristics

Additional signs of sexual maturity visible on the outside of the body that do not directly involve the reproductive organs.

Anorexia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by self-starvation due to a fear of getting fat, distorted body images, perfectionism, and high expectations.

Bulimia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by strict dieting and exercise combined with episodes of bingeing and purging.

Substance abuse

The harmful or unhealthy use of drugs or alcohol.